Dean Nalder is at the centre of an ASIC probe involving a $2 billion tender process. Photo: Supplied

The blunder is the latest in a number of bungles, scandals and controversies that have plagued Mr Nalder since he was plucked from relative obscurity and given the plum portfolios of finance and transport less than two years ago, following a cabinet reshuffle when troubled Liberal MP Troy Buswell resigned.

With the Liberal Party on the nose with the electorate and with an election looming next year, can the government afford to keep an "accident prone" minister on the front bench?

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Nalder swept into parliament in 2013 after winning the seat of Alfred Cove from long-time sitting member and Independent MP Janet Woollard.

Before he even stepped foot into parliament, Liberal party members were giddy with delight at the former ANZ bank executive, who seemingly had all the credentials to one day lead his party.

Mr Nalder then caused unrest within his own party after he nominated for the "prize" new seat of Toohey, which would be the party's safest seat with a margin of 23.2 per cent.

The problem was Liberal backbencher Matt Taylor, who currently holds the seat of Bateman also wanted it.

Mr Nalder's current seat of Alfred Cove is set to be split up between the new seats of Burt and Toohey.

But Mr Nalder won't want the seat of Burt, as it takes in Palmyra, where residents were angered by their homes being in the firing line of the Perth Freight Link.

Throw in the UberX scandal - where Mr Nalder claimed he had no knowledge of the ride-sharing app company setting up in Perth, despite emails showing he did - and it's hard to think of a minister under more scrutiny after less than two years in the job.

If Mr Nalder's ongoing blunders weren't bad enough for the party, a Newspoll recently found Labor was ahead for the first time on a two-party preferred vote, since it was booted out of power in 2008.

Murdoch University political expert Ian Cook said the Premier should move Mr Nalder "out of the limelight" before the election rolled around next year.

"A Nalder demotion would have an important message internally for the party," he said.

"It may be destabilising... though I think the party has locked in behind Barnett and even Barnett's critics might accept Barnett demoting Nalder.

"His [Nalder's] main problem is that he doesn't have much to point to as his achievements as minister. So we are left with a sense of the various problems he has gotten himself into and this makes him a liability for the Liberal Party."

Dr Cook said Mr Nalder had been anything but an effective minister.

"I think Nalder would accept that his performance thus far hasn't been particularly impressive and that most people will not have a sense of him as a highly competent minster doing a very good job," he said.

"I'm not sure how the tensions with Colin Barnett are affecting Nalder's capacity to act as transport minister, but some of the mistakes are distinctly his own and hard to attribute to anything but Nalder not being quick enough on his feet."

Dr Cook said he couldn't see Mr Nalder leading his party.

"He's done little to demonstrate that he would be an effective communicator as a future leader of the Liberal Party," he said.

"He is not that experienced, and some of this is just him not understanding how things work in parliamentary and executive politics.

"I think the more he ducks and dives around the problems with his performance the harder it will be for us to believe that he is learning and can grow into the job of Liberal Party leader."